WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2019 PEDIGREE INSIGHTS: BREEDING STOCK SALES SEASON FINISHES STRONG AT FASIG-TIPTON by Brian DiDonato FEEDBACK POSITIVE FOR LEXINGTON, Ky--The second of two sessions of Fasig-Tipton=s Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale featured strong trade heading into VIOLENCE the opening of the breeding season later this month. The two-day sale saw gross receipts of $9,659,400 at an average of $29,539 and median of $15,000. Last year=s average was $28,673 with a $10,500 median. The buyback rate this year was 20.4%, compared to 22.7% 12 months ago. For Tuesday=s session, $4,982,200 changed hands at an average of $27,526 and median of $13,000. The RNA rate was a paltry 11.3%. AIt was a competitive marketplace from start to finish,@ said Fasig-Tipton President and Chief Executive Officer Boyd Browning, Jr. AThe first horse in the ring yesterday sold very well and the last horse in the ring today sold very well.@ Cont. p6 IN TDN EUROPE TODAY Feedback | A Coglianese SHOWCASING COLT TAKES THE HONOURS AT by Andrew Caulfield Even though Medaglia d=Oro=s fee has been reduced to GOFFS A short yearling by Showcasing (GB) topped the first $200,000 from last year's $250,000, this son of El Prado still day of the Goffs February Sale. Daithi Harvey reports. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. justifiably ranks among America=s highest-priced stallions. After all, he had eight yearlings sell for $1 million or more at last year=s sales and, in 2017, he notched up the remarkable total of seven individual Grade I winners in the U.S. That's very good going for a horse who was priced no higher than $35,000 when he made his stud debut at Hill >n= Dale in 2005. With Medaglia d=Oro now 20, the search is on for his successor. Perhaps the search hasn=t been made any easier by the fact that fillies such as Rachel Alexandra, Songbird, Elate, Plum Pretty, Champagne d=Oro, Gabby=s Golden Gal, Marketing Mix and New Money Honey account for 12 of his 19 Northern Hemisphere Grade I winners. That said, there are sons of Medaglia d=Oro at several of Kentucky=s foremost stallion stations. While Coolmore hasn=t shuttled the champion Australian 2-year-old Vancouver for a third season at Ashford, Darley has traveled Astern, another of Medaglia d=Oro=s best Australian sons, for a second season in Kentucky. Then there=s the newly retired Bolt d=Oro at Spendthrift, with Fast Anna at Three Chimneys, Mshawish is at Taylor Made and both Atreides and Violence at Hill >n= Dale. Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Wednesday, February 6, 2019 Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN News and Features Editor Ben Massam @BMassamTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Amie Morosco Advertising Assistant/Dir. Of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Social Media Strategist With Honors (War Front), owned by LNJ Foxwoods, delivered a filly by Tapit on Monday Justina Severni at Claiborne Farm as part of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame's Foal Director of Customer Service Patrol, Season 2. With Honors is one of eight mares participating in this year’s Foal Vicki Forbes Patrol. The next mare scheduled to foal is Comme Chez Soi (Empire Maker) at Old [email protected] Tavern Farm in Saratoga Springs, NY. Click here to share your 2019 foal photos with Marketing Manager the TDN. Please include sire, dam, owner, and photographer’s name. | Claiborne Farm Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen Director of Information Technology Ray Villa [email protected] Bookkeeper MCKATHAN FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS SET Terry May 13 [email protected] The funeral for late Ocala horseman J. B. McKathan has been scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 9. A celebration of life WORLDWIDE INFORMATION will also be held at OBS next month. International Editor Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 13 • THETDN.COM WEDNESDAY • FEBRUARY 6, 2019 Positive Feedback for Violence (cont. from p1) A lot has been expected of Violence ever since he attracted a $600,000 bid from Steve Marshall=s Black Rock Stables at the yearling sales of 2011, when his price was bettered by only one other son of Medaglia d=Oro. That other son, the $1.2-million Superfection, never raced and was gelded, but Violence has proved to be worth every cent. A debut victory over seven furlongs at Saratoga earned Violence an immediate step up to Grade II company in the Nashua S. at Aqueduct. Victory was widely expected to go to Violence | Sarah Andrew Darwin, another Pletcher-trained colt, but it was Violence who short-priced favorite. He justified the confidence, maintaining overcame his greenness to score by two lengths. Although his unbeaten record by more than a length, with the future Pletcher suggested that Violence would not be seen again until GI Preakness S. winner Oxbox fourth and He=s Had Enough fifth. the winter circuit moved on to Gulfstream, the colt was given Rider Javier Castellano was impressed, commenting that, AHe one more juvenile start, six weeks later on the opposite coast, in is so calm and handles himself very professionally. I think he is a the GI CashCall Futurity on Hollywood Park=s Pro-Ride surface. special horse and I am really looking forward to big times.@ Despite the presence in the field of He=s Had Enough, who had failed by only a head to wear down Shanghai Bobby in the Cont. p4 GI Breeders= Cup Juvenile, it was Violence who started a Contact Sue Finley for details at 732-747-8060 or [email protected] TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 13 • THETDN.COM WEDNESDAY • FEBRUARY 6, 2019 Pedigree Insights cont. Talk Veuve to Me | Sarah Andrew The compilers of the Experimental Free Handicap shared Castellano=s enthusiasm, awarding Violence 123 pounds, which put him joint-second with He=s Had Enough among the males, three pounds below the unbeaten Shanghai Bobby. The GII Fountain of Youth S. was the next stop for Violence and he started odds-on, even though the race=s conditions meant he was set to give six pounds to all eight of his rivals. He nearly proved up to the task, but at the wire he was a half-length adrift of a progressive colt called Orb. While Orb went on to decisive Grade I victories in the Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby, Violence=s career ended in the Fountain of Youth. He was found to have suffered a fracture to a sesamoid. Violence is comfortably the highest priced of the Medaglia d=Oro sons mentioned above, with his fee having risen over the last three years from its original level of $15,000 to $25,000 and now to $40,000. The reasons for this latest rise are encapsulated in some of the data that appears in his Stallion Register details: A#1 Second Crop Sire by Cumulative SWs and SHs with 5 SWs and 8 SHs. AYearlings sold for $850,000, $725,000, $500,000, etc.@ His initial fee of $15,000 in 2014 ensured that Violence would be very attractive to mare owners. In addition to possessing good looks and a fashionable sire, he offered Grade I-winning juvenile form and a female line which featured the champion older female Sky Beauty as his third dam, the dual Grade I winner Maplejinsky as his fourth dam and Mr. Prospector=s champion sprinter Gold Beauty as his fifth dam. Sure enough, mares flocked to Violence, with nearly 700 of them visiting him during the four years he was priced at $15,000. He attracted another 214 in 2018, when his fee was $25,000. Cont. p5 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 13 • THETDN.COM WEDNESDAY • FEBRUARY 6, 2019 Pedigree Insights cont. Violence winning the GI Hollywood Futurity | Benoit He now holds first place on the TDN=s list of Leading Third-Crop Sires, both by cumulative earnings and for the current year. The cumulative table credits him with 105 winners, of which 13 have won black-type events and three are graded stakes winners. The latest of those graded winners is Feedback, who landed the GIII Forward Gal S. over seven furlongs. Her predecessors are Cosmic Burst (GIII Honeybee S.) and Talk Veuve To Me (GIII Indian Oaks). It is significant, in view of Medaglia d=Oro=s record, that all three of Violence=s graded winners are fillies, as is Vibrance, who--like the GI Acorn S. second Talk Veuve To Me-- has been runner-up at Grade I level. I tend to think this is simply coincidence, as there are plenty of colts among his 22 black-type horses. Perhaps because his progeny have often sold for substantial amounts, I find myself wishing that he had a few more top-level performers to his credit.